None of you will like what I have to say. But let me kick the hard truth to you. Honestly about 50% of people I talk to are in nursing school or are taking pre-reqs for nursing school. This is a major red flag for several reasons. If you have not noticed, nursing wages/benefits have been on the down trend.
Pension?? goodbye.
Crud 401k 403b plans hello. Raise? LOL "sorry hospital is working out financial issues, maybe next year".
Nevermind if you work for a community/SNF agency. Yet insurance companies, medicare derived/gov agencies, and anyone else from the top 1% will continue to blast the RN as "shortage" in order to drive drones of students into nursing schools pulling each others hair out on the way to land a seat. Proof of this is, let's see (ABSN ***** ADN, BSN, diploma, LPN/LVN bridge to RN programs, RN to BSN) Why do these different routes exist? To flood the RN market as fast as possible to drive the wage, need, and profession into the ground.
Let's look at our oh so loyal CNA's. If you can find one that isn't in nursing school to be a nurse, ask them how much they make?
Look at LPN's 20-30 years ago and look at them today??
Surely the ANA and other organizations treated them with respect. The RN is next, so make sure to support your local nursing agency so they can do nothing for you. So they can be paid off by organizations so powerful that no one can say no and "not have the power to stop a bill". So they can continue to cry nursing shortage when this is not true.
RNs today are treated like children and are required to demonstrate fundamental task and other skills in inservices which were designed for nothing else but cut throat. To place blame of UTI's and poor patient satisfaction on the nurse.
If you are an RN today, your only safety net is to become an APRN if you want to live comfortably but in several decades the APRN will be under attack just like the LPN had been an RNs currently are. "OH the aging population is going to need nurses" You really think so?
Nursing homes are shutting down and now elderly people live at home with "24 hour care takers" that get paid **** wages and do things only an RN should be doing. You don't think so? Wake up.
None of this is to say that I hate nursing. I love helping people who are mentally ill, suffering from dementia, sick, or on their death beds. It is when we do great things for them that my love for nursing shines. There aren't other people standing around to reward you for your great deeds.
When the family comes in the next day complaining about everything, they never had a chance to see how well their dying loved one was cared for. Your good deeds will never be rewarded, but in a safe place in your heart.
I am just here to open the eyes of people who are intelligent and looking for a new career. I think you may find better job security else where. Invest your time in classes and money else where. Nursing is honestly under great attack right now and the future is black.
Same here as well. I was working as an orderly, saw what the RNs were doing, and said, "I can do that too," and double my income (from $6 an hour to $12 - gee, thanks Florida RN pay!). Funny now, I make that much in ten minutes here in California, all these years later . . . . Sure, it's nice to say I've helped people occasionally, that's not a bad thing at all. As Libby said though, definitely wasn't a calling for me, either.
Ditto.
I've told the story of being an NA and asking the nurses question after question only to have one say with good-humored exasperation, "Why don't you just go to nursing school and leave me alone!" I thought little of it right then, but later it was kind of like, "Huh, Why not?" I liked the old people and it was interesting to me.
It seemed like the thing to do. Since I needed to work to support myself, might as well work at something solid, that I had enjoyed so far....
Very true and well said. I would take it further and add:
5. Nurses should stop enabling Big Corporate Medicine to exploit, abuse and scapegoat them. Why do nurses allow employers to bully them into taking ultimate responsibility for more and more tasks that exist outside the domain of nursing? Why do nurses tacitly submit to being steadily robbed of time for bedside care and patient interaction—the most rewarding aspect of their job? If nurses can't advocate for themselves, they can't successfully advocate for their patients.
6. Nurses should stop watching passively, with closed lips as their unit's, or organization's ONE outspoken, ethical, principled, and most gifted nurse—whom they happen to love working with more than anyone—stands up for what's right, citing the Nursing Code of Ethics, and either gets transferred, fired, or courageously quits. It's cowardly.
7. Nurses should familiarize themselves with the Nursing Code of Ethics. Nurses—learn the true meaning of "patient abandonment" so that ignorant supervisors and greed-driven senior management can't use it to threaten you into submitting to a double-shift or other inappropriate or unrealistic assignments.
8. About the abundance of CNAs, PCAs, HHAs who are in nursing school: Ask the laziest, least empathic aides — the ones who always have a ready excuse as to why they should not do what you just asked them to do — why they want to be a nurse. Usually the answer will involve money, benefits or the desirable schedule. Impress upon them that there are much, much easier ways to make money.
I believe these nurses [from the crappiest pop-up schools] DO impact our profession greatly. They are draining our resources and bringing down the reputation of the profession. Because they can't command a top salary and there are so many of them, administrators think of nurses as "cheap labor" and think that they can use them to replace the better educated and more experienced nurses. Why improve working conditions when there is all this cheap nursing labor around?
Absolutely agreed. Too many of what I'm ashamed to call my "peers" seem to believe that getting the initials "RN" after their names is the epitome of all endeavors and will stop once they've achieved that end. If a nurse (or any professional, for that matter) is not willing to continually make strides in learning and honing skills and theory, the inevitable result is apathy and indifference - two qualities that are found in the "cheap labor" population that is plaguing our profession. Well said, llg.
Too many of what I'm ashamed to call my "peers" seem to believe that getting the initials "RN" after their names is the epitome of all endeavors and will stop once they've achieved that end. If a nurse (or any professional, for that matter) is not willing to continually make strides in learning and honing skills and theory, the inevitable result is apathy and indifference - two qualities that are found in the "cheap labor" population that is plaguing our profession. Well said, llg.
I was with you 100% in the first paragraph but here is where we part company. Personally I'd rather those who enjoy being a RN whether it be ADN or BSN stay with their designation and continue doing a great job at floor nursing. Not that everyone shouldn't continue to learn and explore their patients' conditions in more depth but for Pete's sake we have enough "leaders" with a plethora of useless initials after their names!! Although the truth is I'd rather have one of those who stopped at becoming a RN and actually knows how to care for a live patient as my boss than some of these extra initial'd dolts. Just saying.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
I am not speaking about those nurses who truly have a calling and put their life into it. I do not know if I qualify in that just yet. My desire is to go overseas and do nursing there. It does annoy me to hear people say, 'get your RN, it pays more'. Sure, I understand. I am getting my LPN right now and have considered RN, but the only reason I did so was that I would have a greater knowledge of medical skills to help people. When the first reason given is to increase salary, it seems like the person is gravitating to looking at nursing more as a business.
So for all of you who are called to nursing and what it really stands for, I commend you. Keep up the good work! For those who are in it because 'it really would be cool to play around with medical stuff', and 'it is an easy way to make money', please consider a different field. We need to raise the quality of our nursing profession as something that people can appreciate, not something that can easily be replaced.
Thanks all. I have enjoyed reading the input on this topic.
A "calling" isn't necessary and making money is as valid a reason to become a nurse as any other. It's really not your business why someone else chose to become a nurse, nor is it your place to judge. Raising the quality of our profession has more to to with competent, knowledgable professionals with the backbone to do the right thing that it has to do with a "calling."
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
Too many of what I'm ashamed to call my "peers" seem to believe that getting the initials "RN" after their names is the epitome of all endeavors and will stop once they've achieved that end.
Sociologically, nursing and elementary school education are the two professions with the highest number of entrants who were/are the first generation of their families to complete a college education.
I fall into this category, and attaining the RN license was a huge endeavor considering my background. I had most of the factors associated with students who don't complete college: non-Asian minority, nontraditional status, underprivileged upbringing, full-time employment, weak mathematical skills, a substance-abusing parent, and an undereducated family of origin that didn't place a very high value on higher education (and actively steered me away from attending university despite my three acceptance letters).
I also come from a background of so-called 'cheap labor.' In my teens and early 20s I worked a string of dead-end jobs in fast food, downscale retail, temp agencies, group homes, and a factory. However, I do not think that my 'type' is plaguing the profession. Rather, we are the ones who greatly appreciate nursing jobs because we come from humble beginnings and have experienced poverty and adversity.
I am a curious person who learns something new on a daily basis. I will be finished with a BSN completion program within the next month, and afterward I plan to apply to graduate programs. However, we need people at the bedside who enjoy it and consider the RN license the epitome of their achievements. After all, it is these nurses who will carve out a glorious 30 to 40-year career at the bedside. It is these nurses who remain at the bedside, in the trenches, tending to the heart of nursing care.
Absolutely agreed. Too many of what I'm ashamed to call my "peers" seem to believe that getting the initials "RN" after their names is the epitome of all endeavors and will stop once they've achieved that end. If a nurse (or any professional, for that matter) is not willing to continually make strides in learning and honing skills and theory, the inevitable result is apathy and indifference - two qualities that are found in the "cheap labor" population that is plaguing our profession. Well said, llg.
I'm quoting idbartel but actually responding to the other posters who have responded to the above. I didn't read the paragraph above the way you obviously did -- I read it as id referring to people who finish nursing school and think that, once they've got their licenses, they never have to learn anything again, not that s/he thinks everyone should want to move away from the bedside. We've all worked with nurses who subscribe to what I've heard referred to as "the vaccination theory of education" -- I didn't have any, so I went and got some, so now I'll never have to get it again. And I agree with her/him that those nurses hurt the entire group.
Specializes in Medical Surgical/Addiction/Mental Health.
I am not sure how I feel about this. First, the attrition only accounts for RN's who are becoming APN's. What about nurses who are leaving the profession because of the BS we put up with? Where are the projected number of nurses who will be retiring soon? When the bottom fell out in 2008, many nurses who could have retired did not. They saw 401k balances decrease by tens of thousands of dollars. People had no idea what was going to happen. I can't even say sitting here typing this response that we will see a large number of nurses retiring in the near future. Nursing was not the only profession affected by the deep recession. Simply put- this is an example of supply and demand, the very basic foundation of our country's economics. For the record, no employer/profession offers job security.
You are correct- pensions are going away. Companies are scaling back to reduce costs. I am a member of PERF (Public Employee Retirement Plan). I work for a college and it happens to be one of the benefits. However, many employers are no longer offering this type of benefit. Why do you suppose employers offer higher deductible plans for health insurance? They save on the premiums.
The days of pensions, no deductible health care plans, and no co-pays are gone. I put the maximum into my 401K ($17,500/yr). I also own 13 rental properties (these are my retirement vehicle). If people expect or are waiting for their employer to take care of them at retirement, they are going to be quite surprised. If you are not saving for retirement, START! It's no one's responsibility but your own.
You're right- no one ever walks by and says, Thanks for all that you do! You made my love one feel comfortable today, thank-you†But I suspect that it does not happen to most people. Have you said to the cashier at McDonald's, Hey I can tell you're stressed, but I want to personally thank-you for providing me my meal quickly and with good service?†The majority of people don't. Do you know why? Because that is the expectation today, courtesy of Press Ganey and society. It is expected that EVERY patient will receive EXCELLENT care EVERYDAY with EVERY interaction. Anything else is failure. The majority of society has that mentality, including folks here on AN.
I am not trying to hijack your thread. You have some valid points. I am simply saying if the grass is greener on the other side; it's likely because it sits on top of a septic tank.
I agree with this post. I feel like the job market is so over saturated with nurses that its ridiculous. There isn't a nursing shortage, and people who never even gave nursing a thought or have any respect or compassion for the profession are joining because they hear good pay and job security, which either two can change, at the rate hospitals are trying to cut back on cost and save money. I also feel that nursing is becoming a fad profession, too many people are joining without having a clue what it's like to be a nurse which is far from glamorous
Specializes in Medical Surgical/Addiction/Mental Health.
Excellent point! If you look onto the IN State Board of Nursing's site, you will see several people appearing before the board because they failed NCLEX six times previously and they are requesting to sit for their seventh time. The board always allows the applicants to sit, but only after taking a NCLEX prep course and obtaining a score that predicts the applicant has a 95% chance of passing.
"It use to be that a nurse graduate only had 3 attempts to pass boards, when did the NCLEX allow infinite tries?? No other profession allows this so why would NCLEX?"
Remember when Nursing Boards were only administered 2-3 times a year and you had to wait months for results? Now the tests are administered by computer, year around and preliminary results available in a few days. This is how nurses can retake the tests every 45 days. In the old days, it would have taken years to accomplish.
Personally I'd rather those who enjoy being a RN whether it be ADN or BSN stay with their designation and continue doing a great job at floor nursing. Not that everyone shouldn't continue to learn and explore their patients' conditions in more depth but for Pete's sake we have enough "leaders" with a plethora of useless initials after their names!! Although the truth is I'd rather have one of those who stopped at becoming a RN and actually knows how to care for a live patient as my boss than some of these extra initial'd dolts. Just saying.
Solitaire.G
31 Posts
Same here as well. I was working as an orderly, saw what the RNs were doing, and said, "I can do that too," and double my income (from $6 an hour to $12 - gee, thanks Florida RN pay!). Funny now, I make that much in ten minutes here in California, all these years later . . . . Sure, it's nice to say I've helped people occasionally, that's not a bad thing at all. As Libby said though, definitely wasn't a calling for me, either.